What I Saw on the Farm-Book Review

This week I am showcasing a great book that could easily be integrated in to a classroom setting.

Our family has known Gordon and Nancy Fredrickson for a few years now. Click here to see how our friendship started. About a year ago, Nancy called up Tim and asked him if he could take some pictures of our pigs. Gordon had written about about a school trip to the farm and they were not finding any photos that represented what they wanted. Tim didn’t take award winning pictures, so Nancy came out and took some of her own. 🙂

What I Saw on the Farm is not a typical facts only book about farming. What I like about this book is that the animals do everything completely wrong! But there is where the learning and fun begin. Teachers can easily use this book to discuss fact vs fiction. A good contrasting book might be Living on Farms by Allan Fowler.

What I Saw on the Farm, is full of silly rhymes that make reading and learning fun.

The best part of the whole book is that a local 13 year old boy illustrated the pictures. You can read a nice article done by the Pioneer Press here.

The book isn’t all fantasy. Each page shows pictures of real animals on the farm. At the end of the book there is a short description for each picture. Look at those cute pigs!

The boys (and of course I) love this book. Make sure to visit Gordon’s website to learn about his other books. If you order from his site there is FREE shipping to any where in the continental United States and he will personally autograph the book.

Disclaimer: While our pigs are featured, we do not receive any payment for the pictures, besides a complimentary copy of the book 🙂

5 thoughts on “What I Saw on the Farm-Book Review”

Emily, Thanks for the great book review! My goal is to write books that preserve farm heritage in an entertaining but accurate way. Through this book and the other 2 book series I am trying to teach children accurate details of farm life, and many of my books include a glossary of all the farm terminology used in the book. I’m glad you and the boys like the book. Gordon

Hi Gordon! LOVE this book! Our family is curious to know if the Zweber farms mentioned under photos is the same farm once owned by my Mom’s Grandparents, Henry & Mary Lenhartz Stork. Just a bit of trivia that would be fun to pass on! THX!

Hello Sharon. Thanking for reading our post. Our farm has been in the Zweber family since 1906. It was first owned by John J. Zweber. I know that there is a possible Stork relationship in our family tree, but not sure where. I might need to ask the older experts 🙂 Let me do some digging. -Emily

Sharon,
I think Lisa has emailed you back, but I wanted to follow up with your question. Yes, our farm was once owned by the Storks, pre 1906. One thing we have always wanted to know is how old the barn is. The original part of the barn was there when John J. bought the land. Does your family have any pictures of the farm pre 1906 with the barn?